Death Penalty

04.03.12

Staughton and Alice Lynd have been married for 60 years, and have been prominent activists for nearly as long. They are also longtime friends and partners of the ACLU of Ohio.

The Lynds moved to Ohio in 1976 and were profoundly affected by the 1993 Lucasville prison uprising and its aftermath. Staughton Lynd served as ACLU cooperating council in the appeals of Siddique Abdullah Hasan, who was sentenced to death for allegedly killing a corrections officer during the uprising. Lynd argued that prosecutors presented false evidence in Hasan’s case. In 2007, the ACLU presented a statewide tour of Staughton Lynd’s play on the subject, entitled Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising.

The Lynds also served as ACLU cooperating attorneys in 2001, assisting in a successful class action lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of conditions in the then-new “super-max” prison facility in Youngstown.